


Thrashing in the Sheets

by Zoe_Grimm



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Dirty Talk, Don’t ask me where I’m going with this, Eventual Smut, F/F, Master/Servant, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Power Play, So far it’s fluff, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-13 04:10:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15355923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoe_Grimm/pseuds/Zoe_Grimm
Summary: "Do you ever think that we are beyond salvation?"





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm new to the fandom and realize works like this have probably been written before, this is just my humble version so enjoy. :)

Her ladyship's veins were things that constantly occupied O'Brien's mind. They were such a peculiar shade of blue beneath her pale skin, throbbing with life, threatening death at every turn. O'Brien had thought her own heart would stop beating when Her Ladyship had fallen deathly ill, blood colouring the features red that were truly white as snow underneath. She had stared at that face all night until her eyes were sore, her fingers aching from clenching the rag with which she wiped Cora's face, her back protesting and her heart torn asunder. 

At least it tore a little more with every time Cora murmered her name.

The husband was nowhere to be found then and nor was he now. Again it was O'Brien who cared for Her Ladyship, saw to her needs, and devoted every waking moment to her fulfillment. After Lady Sybil had died, Her Ladyship had cast Lord Robert out of their bed, but it was too empty, everything to terribly empty for Cora to bear. As O'Brien undressed her every night, Cora found herself prolonging the progress, finding silly excuses just so she would not be alone for a little while longer. O'Brien seemed to understand, gently brushing out her hair with occasional reassuring touches, always lingering in the doorway, hesitating, asking if there was anything more she could do. Cora gently shook her head and dismissed her, wishing every night she had said something after all.


	2. Chapter 2

"M’Lady... if there is anything you need, anything at all... you’ll tell me?"

O’Brien asked, in what had become their nightly ritual.

"Thank you, O’Brien. You have been most kind, but..."

Cora trailed off, not finishing the sentence.

"What is it, m’Lady?"

O’Brien walked back into the room with measured steps and a straight back, trying not to breathe.

"What do you need?", she asked gently, stopping in front of Cora’s bed. Cora looked up at her and then away.

"My daughter back", Lady Grantham whispered, turning away to hide the single tear sliding down her porcelain face, and O’Brien instinctively took her hand.

"And my marriage saved", Cora added with a catch in her throat, holding on to O’Brien’s hand, turning her head so that it very nearly rested against O’Brien’s thigh in front of her.

"And if those things are not to be,  m’Lady?" O’Brien asked, and she knew the words themselves sounded rather heartless, but her voice gave her away. If she was heartless now, it was only because she had gifted her heart to the lady in front of her.

"Then I need you, O’Brien. Just you", Cora said, and O’Brien bent down very briefly to kiss her head.

"Have a good night, m'Lady", O’Brien said softly, and there was so much more she could have said, sworn and begged for, but Cora was tired. She gave her hand a final squeeze and closed the door gently behind her as she left. Then she leaned against it for a moment, closed her eyes and tried to breathe again. Every word instantly played back in her head and a simple conversation suddenly became terribly complicated.


	3. Chapter 3

"Do you ever think that we are beyond salvation?",

Cora asked quietly into the night, days later. O'Brien halted on her way out, turning her head halfway around, not yet quite daring to go back.

"What do you mean, m’Lady", she asked hesitantly.

"We are ruined, O’Brien", Cora said in that matter of fact tone of hers, her blue eyes looking up to O’Brien for a change as Her Ladyship was already abed and O’Brien was still standing on the other side of the room.

"Now why would you say that, m’Lady? I’m sure you and his Lordship -"

" _His Lordship_ ", Cora intoned, "has squandered my fortune, tied our daughter to her deathbed and probably broken our holy vows some time ago. I never understood why Jane did hand in her notice."

O’Brien had nothing to say to that. She had had similar suspicions, but to hear Her Ladyship confirm them out loud...

"Do you truly believe you are ruined, m’Lady?", O’Brien asked, finally turning around and taking in Cora’s face that had aged a decade in the last year alone. O’Brien was certain she herself must be looking as if she were falling apart, if for entirely different reasons.

"Yes", Cora said, but there was something in there, there always was, Cora Crawley was not a woman to capitulate without a plan behind it.

"And what will you do m’Lady?", O’Brien asked. If any other living being on this earth breathed deviousness and was not born a Crawley, it was Sarah O’Brien.

Cora got up, slowly, her sheer nightdress ruffled as her feet hit the floor, and walked over to where O’Brien was standing by the door. She did not back away. She held her ground until Cora was standing right in front of her. 

"Why O’Brien", Cora said, with the first hint of a smile that O’Brien had seen on her in ages, "I’ll make sure I’ve been ruined properly, of course."

And with that she bent down, tilting her head to avoid a collision, and claimed O’Brien's mouth with her own.


	4. Chapter 4

O'Brien found herself temporarily rendered immobile, as the Lady of Downton Abbey kissed her with every ounce of passion she could muster. The kiss tasted of such heartbreak O’Brien couldn’t help but open up to it, to open her arms to Cora who came into them willingly. Willing to be undone entirely. After a long moment but apparently not much thought, O’Brien guided Her Ladyship back towards the bed, their bodies landing in a mess of luxurious covers with O’Brien on top. She couldn’t help but think that this was Lady Grantham’s body beneath hers, Lady Grantham’s shoulders sliding out of the sheer nightdress, Lady Grantham’s chest that expanded suddenly in a sharp intake of breath as O’Brien’s thigh found its way between her own. 

The Lady of the house was thrashing in the sheets, as O’Brien set to a task that Robert had only ever seen as his marital duty and her maid turned into a thing of worship. She was covering Cora’s body with her mouth, until -

"Careful, O’Brien. Just because we are falling into sin does not mean it would do for the world to see it", Cora chided lightly, breathlessly, and O’Brien’s teeth gentled on her throat.

"Apologies, m’Lady", O’Brien murmered, even if she did not sound all too sorry. She kissed a path down Cora’s throat and traced it lower, teasing twin peaks onto her chest and descending into the valley that waited below. If her Ladyship had been thrashing before, it was almost impossible to keep her still and quiet now, and O’Brien briefly regretted it was not her place to tell her to shut up. She pulled back a little, kissing Cora’s thighs instead of where her mouth had been moments before, and hoped it would help her quiet down.

"O’Brien..."

It was half a plea and half a threat.

"I am ever so sorry m’Lady, but someone might hear. You must promise not to scream", O’Brien said, as apologetic as she could.

"I shall promise not to scream if you promise to do as you’re told, O’Brien", Cora said.

"Oh but I always do as I am told, m'Lady", O'Brien said with half a smile and went back in to finish what she had started.

It was a shame she would not get to see the way Cora bit her lip as her back arched off the bed, nor hear the sweet and sinful things that went through Her Ladyship’s mind. But she felt something, all right.


	5. Chapter 5

Cora remembered the day that she thought O'Brien would leave, so far away now that O'Brien was lying right underneath her. Skin rocking on skin, O'Brien struggling against Cora's hold and failing.

"Please, m'Lady", O'Brien gasped desperately, a gasp that melted into a moan at the sharp slap in her face. 

"I do feel let down, O'Brien", Lady Grantham teased, the very same words she had spoken weeks ago, but oh, how much better this was. 

"I asked you for four and you gave me three. What do you have to say for yourself?", the Lady demanded, teasing her fingertips over O'Brien's trembling thighs and higher, brushing the most sensitive spots she could find.

"I'm s- so sorry, m'Lady", O'Brien said, bucking upwards, trying to get anything of Cora inside of her, who still kept her distance, but her own resolve was dwindling.... She did want to feel O'Brien clench around her fingers...

"You will perform better in the future, won't you, O'Brien?"

"YES, M'LADY!", came the immediate reply, and O'Brien came not long after that. Cora lowered herself from the throne she had constructed on O'Brien's body, dropping kisses on O'Brien's breasts and collar bones. 

"You must promise never to leave, O'Brien", Cora said, "never, never, never". Each never was another kiss, another inch Cora lowered herself onto the bed and into O'Brien's arms. They closed fast around her, tightening around Cora's curves until she felt perfectly captured, and perfectly ruined. 

"I promise, m'Lady", O'Brien whispered, kissing her Ladyship's hair and repeating silently 

"never, never, never."

 

THE END


End file.
